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Dirty Linen

The Troubles In My Home Place

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Dirty Linen

By: Martin Doyle
Narrated by: Eugene O'Hare
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Martin Doyle, Books Editor of The Irish Times, offers a personal, intimate history of the Troubles seen through the microcosm of a single rural parish, his own, part of both the Linen Triangle – heartland of the North’s defining industry – and the Murder Triangle – the Badlands roamed by the Glenanne gang of security forces colluding with loyalist paramilarites. He lifts the veil of silence drawn over the horrors of the past, recording in heartrending detail the terrible toll the conflict took – more than 20 violent deaths in a few square miles – and the long tail of trauma it has left behind. He also conveys the texture of the times, the high streets where cars could not be left unattended, the newsflashes, the constant background buzz of threat and fear.
Neighbours and classmates who lost loved ones in the conflict, survivors maimed in bomb attacks and victims of sectarianism, both Catholic and Protestant, entrust him with their stories. Doyle marries his local knowledge with a literary sensibility and skilfully shows how the once dominant local linen industry serves as a metaphor for both communal division but also the solidarity that transcended the sectarian divide.
To those who might ask why you would want to reopen old wounds, the answer might be that some wounds have never been allowed to heal. It is by sharing our stories that we build a ridge of common ground from which good things can grow.©2023 Martin Doyle (P)2023 W.F.Howes Ltd Europe Historical
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This is an admirable book in so many ways, especially at a time when there seems to be an increasing trend to glamorise The Troubles in film and TV. An account of the victims, and from all sides of the conflict, and one from one particular region of The North is powerful. I felt that the most successful sections where often where Doyle relayed his own direct experience of sectarian prejudice, especially at school and his account of the aftermath of the Abercorn Restaurant bombing. What is more problematic is the completely understandable tendency for a lot of the victim narratives, as told by their families, to fall into a sort of template. Everything is recalled in preternatural detail, the victims are not just innocent but saint like in terms of their characters, someone will say "I will remember that for as long as I live" in relation to some tiny detail, the suffering of those left behind must be continuous and hasten their own deaths and for deaths involving loyalist paramilitaries there will also be some recollection of soldiers behaving suspiciously in the days and hours beforehand. I am not saying any of that is not true, and who can know really what any of those families truly went through, but human memory is complex. The Abercorn victim whose only memory is coming round in hospital and whose equally injured visited sister on her visit seeks mostly to reclaim the bedside items that belong to her, not her sister, felt more human and believable somehow (because we are not saints). It did not alter my own feeling about the conflict. The violence in Ireland was psychopathic and unjustified. No one can say there were not provocations but what followed did nothing to hasten the appearance of a united Ireland and added in monstrous measure to the sum of human misery for more than 30 years.

Important, and timely

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This was a balanced and very informative production.It provided an excellent insight into the Northern troubles and how fragile the Peace Agreement is.

The dangers of Politics.

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A well thought out and poetic look at the horrors sustained by "normal" people during the Troubles. Beautifully written and narrated. Well worth a read.

Excellent

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Well written and narrated, giving an honest assessment of how the troubles impacted both sides of the political divide

A good balanced viewpoint on the troubles

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This account tells the story of real people, my story, the story of moderate people who lived through this terrible period. All of us bear the scars although some so much deeper than others. I cried often, I sat the book down often, to hard to read the pain suffered, still being suffered. Within minutes I had picked it up again compelled to read on. This is a beautifully written, must read book.

Outstanding book. A very real account

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